Principal Machine Learning Engineer

Working at Atlassian
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At Atlassian, we're on a mission to unleash the potential of every team. As part of that mission, we're investing deeply in Generative AI - pioneering advanced modeling and rapid innovations that accelerate how teams work, discover, and create.
We're seeking a Principal Machine Learning Engineer (P60) to join our new GenAI Modeling & Jira Search team. This is a hands-on technical leadership role where you'll push the boundaries of advanced GenAI modeling, rapid prototyping, and applied research-turning state-of-the-art techniques into high-impact innovations across Atlassian.
Advance GenAI Modeling with Knowledge

• Design and build novel approaches for knowledge-grounded LLMs, embeddings, and multimodal modeling.
• Explore fine-tuning, post-training, and retrieval-augmented strategies to adapt foundation models to Atlassian's data.
• Lead technical explorations that expand the frontier of what's possible in applied generative modeling.

Prototype & Experiment Rapidly

• Drive POC experimentation, from agentic workflows to novel GenAI-powered assistants.
• Translate research ideas into fast, working prototypes that demonstrate user value.
• Define and implement evaluation methods (groundedness, hallucination detection, human-in-the-loop) to measure success.

Provide Technical Leadership

• Act as the technical anchor of a small tiger team (manager + ICs), mentoring engineers and scientists.
• Influence design and implementation across retrievers, rankers, orchestration, and serving infrastructure.
• Collaborate with product and platform teams to transition prototypes into scalable systems.

Shape Innovation Strategy

• Contribute to the roadmap for the Forge as a global hub for advanced GenAI modeling and applied research.
• Partner with peers across Rovo, Jira Search, Knowledge AI, and Platform to drive cross-team impact.
• Champion responsible AI, groundedness, and data quality in all innovations.

Experience

• Extensive experience in ML/AI engineering (generally 6+ years), with deep expertise in LLMs, NLP, or search.
• Proven track record of building and shipping ML-powered or GenAI-integrated products.
• Hands-on experience with retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), embeddings, hybrid retrieval, or agentic workflows.
• Strong background in scaling ML systems from prototype to production.

Skills

• Expert-level knowledge of GenAI ecosystems (OpenAI, Anthropic, Mistral, OSS) and fine-tuning/serving frameworks.
• Deep technical skills across modeling, infrastructure, and orchestration (LangChain, LlamaIndex, vector DBs).
• Strong prototyping ability, balancing speed with rigor in experimentation.
• Ability to set technical direction and inspire peers with thought leadership.

Education

• Master's or PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or related field preferred-or equivalent industry experience.

Nice to Have

• Experience with multimodal models, knowledge graphs, or semantic embeddings.
• Familiarity with evaluation metrics for search/GenAI (NDCG, groundedness, human preference modeling).
• Contributions to open-source ML frameworks or GenAI research communities.
• Passion for mentoring, fostering innovation, and shaping a new AI hub in Singapore.

Compensation
At Atlassian, we strive to design equitable, explainable, and competitive compensation programs. To support this goal, the baseline of our range is higher than that of the typical market range, but in turn we expect to hire most candidates near this baseline. Base pay within the range is ultimately determined by a candidate's skills, expertise, or experience. In the United States, we have three geographic pay zones. For this role, our current base pay ranges for new hires in each zone are:
Zone A: $232,200 - $303,150
Zone B: $209,700 - $273,775
Zone C: $193,500 - $252,625
This role may also be eligible for benefits, bonuses, commissions, and equity.
Please visit go.atlassian.com/payzones for more information on which locations are included in each of our geographic pay zones. However, please confirm the zone for your specific location with your recruiter.
Benefits & Perks
Atlassian offers a wide range of perks and benefits designed to support you, your family and to help you engage with your local community. Our offerings include health and wellbeing resources, paid volunteer days, and so much more. To learn more, visit go.atlassian.com/perksandbenefits .
About Atlassian
At Atlassian, we're motivated by a common goal: to unleash the potential of every team. Our software products help teams all over the planet and our solutions are designed for all types of work. Team collaboration through our tools makes what may be impossible alone, possible together.
We believe that the unique contributions of all Atlassians create our success. To ensure that our products and culture continue to incorporate everyone's perspectives and experience, we never discriminate based on race, religion, national origin, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, or marital, veteran, or disability status. All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.
To provide you the best experience, we can support with accommodations or adjustments at any stage of the recruitment process. Simply inform our Recruitment team during your conversation with them.
To learn more about our culture and hiring process, visit go.atlassian.com/crh .